Residents on 3 private streets in Oceola Township will have to make a decision on how and if they want to fix their crumbling roads.

The Oceola Township Board of Trustees discussed improvements on Pleasant Ridge, Gasser, and Eads within the Booth district at their regular meeting Thursday night. Supervisor Bill Bamber said he drove the roads himself as the day before,and that “They’re tough. I’ve seen a lot better roads; they could go to gravel in 4 to 5 years.”

Residents, who pay roughly $90 each per year into a road fund, have accumulated approximately $88,000 in savings. The problem is that that will only cover one of the 3 roads. Bamber said Pleasant Ridge itself would run just north of $88,000. The estimate for Eads came in at $83,000. Another $50,000 would be needed for Gasser.

The Board discussed options on what to do, being roughly $133,000 short for the project. Bamber suggested possibly doing Pleasant Ridge, as they made the original push to the Board. The Board wasn’t comfortable spending all the savings on just one street, when residents from all 3 were paying in. As of now, there seem to be 2 options for homeowners in the area. One, Bamber said, is to not do anything. The other is to create a special assessment district. To do so would require signatures from 51% of residents on the 3 streets and the ones that need them to get out.(MK)